Heroines Anthology [preorder]

I’m excited to have a poem in Heroines Anthology: Volume 5 available to preorder here. Oh, to make the launch in Sidney! Thanks so much to Sarah Nicholson and co.

In Heroines: An Anthology of Poetry ‘Meet mythological women and goddesses from across the globe, dryads and selkies, muses and manasa, artists, space explorers and more’

When life gives you lemons :)

Delighted to have a poem in the gorgeous Irish poetry, fiction & art journal The Waxed Lemon. You can buy it here Thank you to Derek & Joanne at TWL. 

Hello July

July greetings to all!. Delighted to have just received my contributor’s copy of Issue 46 of Southwords. How gorgeous is this cover?(‘Domestic Madonna’ by Rita Duffy). Also, the cover of ‘100 Poems of Hope’ a new anthology from The Samaritans (proceeds to) I’m chuffed to have a poem in, available here.

A special week…

Such a special week co-tutoring with the mighty Vanessa Lampert at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre of Wales for The Writing School last week and a gorgeous group of poets, topped off by a stunning guest reading from Warda Yassin. Ann missing from photo! Kathryn Bevis, you were there too in words shared, inspiration & poetry spirit
In other news, just had a poem accepted for the brilliant The Waxed Lemon. And here’s a fun photo from the Wow Festival neurodiversity panel I did in May. I hope everyone is enjoying summer!

May update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and here we are in May no less! I hope this finds you well, sun-licked and bird-songed. Speaking of hope, I’m chuffed to have a few poems accepted for coming anthologies, one being: an anthology of poems about hope from The Samaritans, published in July in paperback and Kindle. I’m also delighted to have been shortlisted for the Heroines Writing Prize and have poem in Volume 5 of Heroines Anthology from Neo Perennial Press, themed around telling women’s lost histories, or untold stories and reimagining women in myth, fairytale, folklore and legend.

This Saturday 11^th May I’m speaking on a panel about neurodiversity and mental health with Georgia Bondy and Jennifer Booth at Wow Festival in Rotherham. And later this month, I’m so thrilled to be back teaching at the magic Ty Newydd Writing Centre of Wales with Vanessa Lampert for a full house of poets on ‘Writing the Rooms of the Poem’.

Busy times…

It’s been a busy time recently but lots of fun and fine creative connections teaching two retreats for Arvon at Hebden Bridge, and Ty Newydd in Wales in February and March. And yesterday I had a lovely little trip to Birmingham with Hive Young Poets Luke Worthy, Fae Horsley and Lalla Waddington for the National Poetry Collectives Showcase at Uni Slam. I’m currently planning for two writing projects and doing lots of mentoring. And spring is coming! 

Retreats! Retreats!

Hello people of 2024! I hope the year has started well for you 🙂 Just a very quick post as I’m busy-busy on catch up after a rubbish, dragging cold. I’m excited to be teaching three residential retreats with the wonderful Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre of Wales & Arvon this spring! The first is actually in February and it’s a Welsh young writers’ retreat. I was fortunate enough to run this last year, with fiction and screenwriter, Russ Litten, and it was such a gorgeous course with lovely young people, so I’m really looking forward to it again! I hope we have the same mild bright weather as last time. It was like a perfect early spring 🙂

Then on the 11th of March, I’m running a Starting to Write ‘Let your writing take flight’ Arvon retreat for the Lumb Bank centre at Hebden Bridge with co-tutor, the brilliant Jacob Ross and visiting writer Alycia Pirmohamed. A little of the blurb here: Do you feel unsure about how to get your writing off the ground? Do you want to get your flying machine of ideas into the air and landing on the dreaded blank page? What about support for writing you’ve already started? If you’re a new or fledgling writer, keen to explore fiction and poetry in a warm and supportive environment, this course will help your writing take flight. If you know anyone who might be interested, please pass on the details! 

And in May (26th-31st), I’m doing another poetry-focused retreat Writing the Rooms of the Poem at the magical Tŷ Newydd writing centre of Wales, with the brilliant Vanessa Lampert. Our guest reader is the wonderful Warda Yassin. We’ve endeavoured to keep the retreat as affordable as possible, and much less than the usual cost for these types of retreats but there are also discounted bursary places available for anyone who wants to apply. Details here.

Mainspring Arts Poetry Course

Just a quick end of year post to mention this online poetry course I’m running for Mainspring Arts aimed at neurodivergent people. Starts February 2023 and runs on Sunday evenings. There are two other fab courses to choose from too (Writing the Self & Freedom to Play). All details here.

And last bit of lovely news to end 2024: delighted to have a short story/monologue in the 100th issue of Mslexia (my favourite magazine!) Poetry dream realised 🙂 Happy holidays and here’s hoping for a better year for so many in 2025.

Remembering Benjamin Zephaniah

It was an honour to be on Paulette Edward’s show BBC Radio Sheffield today with Hive young poet Lalla Waddington talking about the light that was Benjamin Zephaniah. You can listen here at 2hr+14mins #dyslexia #neurodivergence #inspiration #dubpoetry

I also wrote this piece about Benjamin. Ode to a dyslexic philosopher: How Benjamin Zephaniah advocated for self-belief

An honour to be on @BBCSheffield @pauletteish show with @HiveSouthYorks poet Lalla (#Rhaineforrest) Waddington to talk about the light that was @BZephaniah 2hr+14mins in: https://t.co/K05DLU0ccb✍️#dyslexia #neurodivergence #inspiration #dubpoetry pic.twitter.com/dcEReGRZxb

— Vicky Morris (@VickyMWriter) December 11, 2023

After Hours Anthology

I’m so very excited to say, it’s been an absolute joy to edit Hive’s 2023 emerging young writers anthology: After Hours, and now… it is available to buy!!! Featuring 79 emerging young writers from across South Yorkshire and the nearby north (aged 14 to 30), the anthology contains 67 poems and 15 stories (115 pages). It’s such a diverse and inspiring book, definitely one of my favorites I’ve put together.

This brilliantly inventive, powerful and vibrant anthology of poetry and short fiction showcases writing by the next generation of writers in the North. Many are members of Hive young writers’ groups or have attended Hive programmes and projects across the region. Some have been placed in our competitions. There’s also work from Hive award-winning writers such as Luke Worthy, Beth Davies, Safia Khan, Lauren Hollingsworth Smith and Warda Yassin.

We launched in Sheffield at the Hallam University Performance Lab with young writers traveling from across the north to be with us. Such a wonderful night!

“From museum tardigrades to keyring turtles, glow-ups to circus tricks – mic-droppingly brilliant writing from the next generation of writers in the north.” Vanessa Lampert

So what are you waiting for? Get yourself a copy, or treat someone you love 🙂